Vol.5 No.30 DoM E Message—Divine Mercy Sunday
Spiritual Gift of the Week
In this Year of Mercy, through the intercession of Mary,
we ask for the grace of a greater awareness of the greatness of God’s mercy to us,
and the new life that flows through the act of forgiveness.
In God, all things are possible.
Spiritual Instruction of the Week, by Susan Duffey
We must have the courage to go out and proclaim Christ the Risen Lord, for he is our peace. “Trusting in the mercy of the Lord forever, because he is waiting for us, he loves us.”
(Pope Francis)
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Dear Beautiful Daughters of Mary,
The ABC’s of Divine Mercy…
As we prepare for Divine Mercy Sunday, let us recall Tuesday’s Spiritual Instruction given by Susan Duffey. It is impossible to adequately express our gratitude to Susan for reminding us of the simplicity of Divine Mercy: “A—Ask for mercy…B—Be Merciful…C—Completely trust in Jesus…”
Wow! Let us read, reflect and pray!
This Sunday we observe Divine Mercy Sunday. What is Divine Mercy? According to The Marians of the Immaculate Conception:
“The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us – all of us. And, he wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.”
In Divine Mercy Explained, Father Michael Gaitley tell us:
“Mercy is “love’s second name,” as John Paul II said. It’s a particular kind of love, a particular mode of love when it encounters suffering, poverty, brokenness, and sin. Divine Mercy is when God’s love meets us and helps us in the midst of our suffering and sin. In fact, because this side of eternity we’re all sinners and because suffering is our lot in life, God’s love for us here always takes the form of mercy. It’s always the Lord stepping out in compassion to help us poor, weak, and broken sinners. From our perspective, then, every good we receive is an expression Divine Mercy.”
The Divine Mercy message is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC:
A – Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
B – Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.
C – Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.
St. John Paul II established this feast on the Second Sunday of Easter in the year 2000 so that all of us could thank God for the gift of his merciful love that led him to stop at nothing in order to save us from our sins and from the eternal death to which our sins lead.
He announced the establishment of this Feast during the canonization of St. Faustina Kowalska. One of the requests St. Faustina described in her Diary that Jesus made of her was about this Feast. She wrote, “The Lord said, ‘I want… the first Sunday after Easter … to be the Feast of Mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and a shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day, the very depths of my tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day are open all the divine floodgates through which graces flow.”
In his homily, for the canonization, St John Paul II said, “It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church, will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’
By the words “the whole message,” Pope John Paul II was referring to the connection between the “Easter Mystery of the Redemption” — in other words, the suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, followed by the sending of the Holy Spirit — and this Feast of Divine Mercy, the Octave Day of Easter, which fulfills the grace of atonement as lived through by Christ Jesus and offered to all who come to Him with trust.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, as the Resurrected Jesus appears to the apostles, who in fear, have locked them selves in the Upper Room, we learn of a flow of mercy to sinners that St. Peter tells us will not stop until we have all attained the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls.
We see the Divine Mercy of Jesus as he appears to his Disciples in the Upper room, not to chastise them for their lack of faith or their cowardice, but to entrust His ministry to them. ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you. … Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:21-23).
What does this mean for us? Pope Francis tells us :
… the Spirit of the Risen Christ casts out fear from the hearts of the apostles and pushes them out of the Upper Room, to bring the Gospel. We also must have more courage to witness to faith in the Risen Christ! Let us not be afraid to be Christian and live as Christians! We must have the courage to go out and proclaim Christ the Risen Lord, for he is our peace. “Trusting in the mercy of the Lord forever, because he is waiting for us, he loves us.
(Spiritual Instruction By Susan Duffey)
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A prayer of mercy by Saint Faustina:
Most Merciful Jesus, from whom comes all that is good, increase Your grace in men and women consecrated to Your service, that they may perform worthy works of mercy; and that all who see them may glorify the Father of Mercy who is in heaven (Diary, 1213).
Veni, Spirito Santo, la misericordia di Dio ci salva—Come Holy Spirit, it is by God’s mercy that we are saved,
Deb
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